Questions and Answers
by briroch
Summary: After the Episode "Thrill Killers" Mike and Steve have a long overdue conversation in the hospital, lots of questions and lots of answers. Some expected and some rather unexpected...


**_A/N: _**_This scene is set after Season 5 "Thrill Killers" and is a kind of a sequence to my story "First one on the Scene". Keller 12917 wanted to know how Mike and Steve had the long overdue heart-to-heart about Steve's plans of leaving SFPD and if he ever got to share his feelings with Jeannie. So here it is, thanks to her prompts!_

_A special thank you goes to Tanith 2011 for her wonderful Beta reading and great suggestions._

_Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, I only borrow them for a short while for my- and hopefully- my readers enjoyment. _

**_Questions and Answers_**

Mike Stone carefully opened the door of the hospital room and peered inside.

The pale young man was stretched out motionless on the bed, his eyes closed. Mike tiptoed closer, as he didn't want to wake his partner who, after open heart surgery, certainly needed all the rest he could get. On the other hand he was disappointed to find Steve asleep once more. Ever since the night his protégé was shot he had been waiting for an opportunity to talk to him in private. So far there had always been other people around: his daughter Jeannie, doctors, nurses, colleagues. Mike had even persuaded some nurses to let him in after visiting hours, but Steve was asleep again. So instead of talking about what was on in, his mind he had sat at the side of his friend's bed, his hand covering Steve's , all the while watching the monitors displaying his vital signs.

He was very much relieved and grateful that his Buddy Boy was alive and in the process of recovering from his injuries.

But he was deeply disturbed at the same time when he thought back on how the shooting could have happened in the first place.

Most of all though, the Lieutenant was profoundly distraught by how close he had come to losing his surrogate son.

Mike bent over the bed, blinking away the moisture in his eyes. He reached out to stroke Steve's cheek when all of a sudden the young man's eyes snapped open and a mischievous grin spread over his face. What was intended to be a pat on the cheek became a friendly pinch. "Hi Mike! Thought you'd never come to see me!" he greeted his mentor cheerfully.

"I had to wave my badge at the nurses to let me in after visiting hours several times, but you were just pushing up zzzs. And what were you doing now, may I ask? Pretending to be asleep to catch me acting like a sentimental old fool?" Mike joked.

Steve giggled. "_You_ said that, _not I_. Bear in mind I should be resting and under no circumstances should I get overly excited."

Mike recalled having received similar instructions from Jeannie.

Steve struggled to sit up in his bed.

"Easy now, my boy! Are you allowed to be sitting up yet?" Mike cautioned.

The mischievous grin widened. "I'll get very upset if you won't let me have my way."

The older man readily gave in. He decided to rely on the machines monitoring his friend's vital signs. If anything went wrong he was sure there would be nurses and doctors rushing in immediately and stop Steve from doing whatever he shouldn't do. He helped Steve to settle comfortably against the pillows and then sat down on the edge of the bed.

Steve clasped Mike's hand. "It's good to see you."

"Even better to see you! Oh, Buddy Boy, I thought I'd lost you." Mike struggled to keep his emotions in check.

"I'm sorry Mike. I really am!" Steve looked at his mentor, trying to gage his reaction. "I know you don't want me to leave the force, but..."

"All that matters is that you are alive and getting well," Mike finished the sentence for him and left it at that, although he did have one question on the tip of his tongue. The very question that had been bothering him but didn't dare to ask it.

Steve smiled and looked at his fatherly friend expectantly. "When are you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?" Mike stalled.

"Aaw Mike, come on now. I know what you're going to ask and I also know that I'm due for a lecture and I deserve it. I'm off the critical list so I can take it."

Mike hesitated. Of course this was exactly what had been preying on his mind but he couldn't find the right words for opening the conversation. So he patted Steve's hand instead.

Steve waited for a little while longer and then started himself, "I should have told you much earlier when I noticed I found it increasingly harder to use my gun. Ever since..."

Mike was about to start speaking but Steve interrupted him. "The incident brought a lot of other stuff back up."

"The Davies Kid?" Mike had always suspected that Steve had been struggling with feelings of guilt over a very long period of time.

"Mike, I know I should have talked to you sooner and explained my reasons behind going for the position in Berkley but..." he looked up and Mike detected the emotional turmoil going on in his partner's mind.

"Steve..." Mike started. "Of course I would have preferred you to stay with the force but only for purely selfish reasons. Letting you go is better than losing you. All that matters to me is your happiness. Do you think you will be happy teaching?"

Steve thought carefully. "I really hope so. Well, the way things are now I'm glad I've been given the chance to choose. His expression had turned serious again.

"Oh Steve..." All of a sudden Mike began to understand the pressure his protégé must have been under for weeks and felt bad when he thought how he had blocked any conversation that Steve tried to instigate. Maybe if he had listened to his partner's concerns, the young man would not be in hospital right now.

"You know that no matter what you do for a living it will never affect our friendship," he assured the younger man.

Steve grinned. "Really? Even if I decided to pursue a criminal career now?"

"Oh, you know what I mean, wiseguy! And don't think that I won't box your ears just because you're going to be a professor soon." Mike ruffled the young man's hair affectionately. "Now Steve, seriously, how are you feeling? I don't want to tire you out..."

"Oh no, Mike, I'm fine. Besides, I do nothing all day but rest!" the young man winced with disgust.

"You just better do what the doctors tell you, no matter how bored you get. I'm sure you will be allowed more visitors soon and then you'll have no peace at all when all your girlfriends come calling," Mike joked.

Steve winced again.

"Is this a sore subject, buddy boy? Who is the girlfriend of the month, just to keep me in the loop here?" Mike sensed that something was amiss. _Had there been a recent breakup?_ Thinking back he had noticed that Steve hadn't mentioned a girlfriend for months. He also noticed that Steve looked very downcast now.

"Come on, spill it, something is bothering you and I don't need any detecting skills to tell you straight out that it is girl trouble. Anything I can do to help?" Mike asked.

Steve sighed. "It's a long story, Mike."

Mike looked up at the monitors. "Unless all your readings go through the roof and the nurse throws me out, I have all night. Go on!" he encouraged.

Steve took a deep breath. "I know you always disapproved of my rather casual dating." He waved Mike's denial away. "But there is a reason."

"Do you find it hard to commit to just the one girl?" Mike probed gently.

"On the contrary, there is a girl I would gladly commit to for the rest of my life," Steve answered quickly.

"And she doesn't love you back? What a silly lady!" Mike was disgusted.

"No, Mike, that's not the problem either," Steve tried to clarify.

The older man was stumped. "You have to explain this a little bit better to me."

"Well…" Steve almost squirmed. "In spite of being a modern and liberated young woman she still wouldn't enter into a serious relationship without her father's blessing."

"I suppose that speaks for the young lady. But I still don't quite understand. You're a fine young man. Any father should be happy to have you as a son-in-law!" Mike was getting hot under the collar just thinking that some prejudiced old fool could reject his buddy boy as a son-in-law!

"What about you? Would you be happy to have me as a son-in-law?" Steve asked tentatively.

Mike felt as if the floor had opened up under him and at the same time little things he had noticed over the last few months all of a sudden made sense. _Careful now, Mike, don't dig yourself in deeper! _

"Obviously I warned you off Jeannie when you first met her, she wasn't even eighteen then and you were a bit of a lady's man - don't deny it!" He poked his finger at Steve's bandaged chest without touching him. "Then I came to see you as a son and treated you like one." Steve's questioning eyes never left his mentor's face. "Now let me explain this a bit better. Steve, when Connie handed you your marching papers, whose side did I take?"

"Mine, of course!" Steve replied

"And when you and Maureen split up?"

"Mine, too."

"And what about Annie and Michelle and Julie and Regina? Who was listening to your tales of woe and took your side?"

"You, Mike, who else?"

"Exactly, that's the point, who else! And whose side did I take when Jeannie broke up with Brad and with Peter and…"

"Jeannie's side, of course!"

"There now! What will I do when you and Jeannie have a spat? Take your side or hers? Side with the daughter or the son?"

Steve laughed with relief. "Mike, if that's your only objection, I can live with it and I'll gladly give you permission to take Jeannie's side and kick my butt if you ever feel I deserve it."

Mike patted Steve's cheek. "Believe me, buddy boy, I will. But I will be scrupulously fair and give her a good talking to if I think she deserves it."

"Does this mean we have your blessing?" Steve gushed.

"As I said earlier on, which father wouldn't be proud to have you as a son-in-law?" Mike meant every word he said. "There is just one little matter. I hope you had a proper heart-to-heart with Jeannie before you had this talk with me. A liberated young woman like her wouldn't take too kindly to be left out of this discussion."

Steve laughed out loud with happiness and relief. "Why Mike, who do you think came up with this ploy in the first place?"


End file.
